Fall and Watch Me Rise
by MetalSolidCrisis
Summary: When Titans hunger for flesh outside the walls, and shadows thirst for your death inside the walls, don't relinquish your only weapon. Sharpen it, clutch it tightly and fight back. An EreMika fanfiction, featuring a stronger Eren, and even stronger foes.


_A/N: Hullo hullo, I bring you an idea that popped into my head and I ran with it for far too long. I thought it was going to be something short and simple, but noooooooo, I just have to make this into a multi-chapter story (I would never rest easy if I didn't). This story will have Eremika and some other pairings (my lips are sealed, I'm not telling) and will go a different route than the manga. All I can say is, "hold on," because this is going to be long ride… but enough of that! As always, read, review and enjoy!_

"Normal Speech"

'_Normal thoughts'_

Words _italicized_ and/or **bolded** for emphasis

**Fall and Watch Me Rise**

The Commander of the Survey Corps, along with his Captain and Eren Yaeger, stood just before a wild forest. Before them were thousands and thousands of trees, and darting through them was Mikasa Ackerman. Erwin adjusted his stance to be able to look at the teen next to him inconspicuously as to not let him notice. It seemed to work, since the teen's expression remained the same - jealous, and it had been that way for the past couple of minutes as his black-haired friend ran through the obstacle course crafted by humanity's strongest soldier himself. With every spin and flash of her blades slicing flawlessly through the necks of the titan dummies, his mood would worsen. She was only halfway in and already, Erwin could almost see dark clouds forming above Eren's head.

She dipped and propelled upwards in the blink of an eye, dancing from target to target. She didn't even bother to hold her gaze on the hooks of her 3D maneuver gear to ensure they would hit their mark; the hooks never missed. Unparalleled genius. What impressed Erwin the most was just how natural it all seemed to her. Most soldiers, given that they survived long enough, would learn techniques from studying diagrams and maneuver theories and then practicing those very same techniques in real life until they mastered them. That took years, yet here she was, executing moves that even the most seasoned soldiers would struggle with, as if it were second nature.

His attention shifted from the Ackerman in the trees to the one standing next to him, who was fully fixated on Mikasa's performance; his eyes didn't strain to follow her movements. His arms were crossed and he seemed a bit… annoyed. Erwin glanced at Levi's hand and noticed that instead of being closed in a fist, four of his fingers were extended slightly against his arm. The shorter man was muttering to himself in distaste, "It's like she learned nothing."

He was counting her mistakes.

The corner of the commander's mouth curled upwards by fractions and when his eyes returned to the girl, his expression was one of sympathy. _'He's just as ruthless as ever, it seems.'_

Next to them, Eren's eyes were still following Mikasa. He'd watch and only wonder how she was maintaining accurate control when flying at such high speeds. The scowl on his face deepened, but he wasn't mad at her. He was mad at himself. _'Why can't I follow her movements? Why is it that by the time I realize what she did and why, she's in a completely different part of the course, hundreds of feet away from where she had been seconds ago? I knew she was stronger, better, and faster than me, but I didn't think the gap was this… huge.'_

A voice, a small one, in the back of his head, tried reminding him that he wasn't bad. He _had_ graduated as the top fifth soldier in his squad, but all that seemed pathetic in comparison to the top graduate. He need to be the best to accomplish what he wanted, he had to be the strongest and failure wasn't an option. He knew that that's what he need to do when he lifted the massive boulder and became humanity's only hope. _'And if I were as good as Mikasa…'_

"Eren, get the shit out of your ears and do the course, Erwin has already repeated himself twice." He flinched when the captain's annoyed voice tore him from his thoughts.

"Sorry, sir." He said, and started jogging towards the closest tree to start before the Captain repeated himself.

Mikasa was just finishing up, latching both hooks into the branch of a tree to swing herself to where Eren was going to start. One fluid backflip later, she was standing in front of him. Eren didn't get the chance to say a word. "Eren, your gas tanks aren't on right."

In a matter of seconds, she was fixing them and he knew there was no point in fighting her, so he only rolled his eyes. He would have tried blasting off with his 3DMG if it was anyone else but Mikasa. She'd just grab onto him before his feet could leave the ground and slam him down in front of the Commander and the captain and he didn't want that. Having your gear fixed in front of your superior officers was already embarrassing enough. "There, _there!_" he swatted her hands away.

So maybe he was a bit angry with her. '_That backflip was completely unnecessary.'_

Eren started the course before Mikasa would do something like fix his collar in front of Levi and Erwin.

The captain listened to what the blonde man next to him was hypothesizing, not bothering to add anything. When he was done, the shorter man waited several seconds, taking his time to digest what he had heard. "You really think that's it, Erwin?"

The commander opted to look at Mikasa who had stayed closer to the forest, probably to rush to Eren's aid, should he need it. "Well what did you expect would happen? When we rely on his skills as a Titan more than the skills he has as a human, he's bound to feel… inadequate."

A dry laugh from Levi was the initial reply, "Well he wasn't going to be lifting any boulders with that scrawny body of his, that's for sure."

"If he had been at Mikasa's level during our mission to capture the Female Titan, how much different would the outcome had been-"Levi's voice cut through Erwin's, not angry or violent, but the gesture itself spoke volumes.

"Neither of us could have predicted that outcome, Erwin. We knew the beginning and the end, but nothing about what would happen in between."

"So is there really a downside to training him even more now that the odds are so stacked against us? Should he be deadly as a human and a Titan, our chances of winning can only go up."

This seemed to make Levi hesitate. "So we sharpen humanity's strongest weapon even further?"

Erwin nodded, "All labels aside, he _is_ our last hope of ever leaving these walls."

He heard a sigh come from the Captain, almost as if he knew where he was going with this. Regardless, he still asked, "So what do you have in mind?"

"One on one training. We hone his skills and make him worth a hundred soldiers." Erwin's eyes were bright and calculative as they stared down the subject of their conversation.

"I'm already training Ackerman and you're throwing Yaeger at me too? I expect a pay raise and added benefits since I'll have to be dealing with two walking hormonal factories that get emotional at every touch of a breeze. Not to mention that the scarfed one can't seem to function without being attached to Eren's hip." He added the last part dreadfully, already imagining the countless pain-in-the-ass scenarios they'd put him in.

Erwin let Levi go through all his complains. He was reminded once more of just how talkative Levi could be. "Oh, you know she's not like that."

A _tch_ was all he got in return.

"I'll train Eren."

Levi looked relieved, if only for a couple of seconds, and then curious. "And just how will you manage to pull that off?"

"I'll make time and find a way, trust me."

A moment of silence passed between the two as they both looked at nothing in particular. Levi chose to add one more thing. "Just don't take it too far. Not everyone can do what you can, and he's no good to us with a broken bone or two-"

"EREN!"

If her scream hadn't, the loud cracks and snaps would have caught their attention. Two heads snapped to look in the direction of the commotion and from where they were, they could see several trees and bushes tremoring from an impact.

**Flashback Start:**** Five minutes ago**

Eren zipped up to the tree he had seen Mikasa flip from and stared at the course. He'd have to take down 50 wooden titan outlines that filled the forest, all with pig flesh at the nape of the neck to simulate the flesh of a titan, in ten minutes. That alone wouldn't be hard, but Captain Levi had added one more element. All around where hundreds of hoops, several meters in the air and each with a ribbon tied to it that he was expected to get while passing through them. So far, the only ones to have completed this course were watching him at this moment, and he'd show them. All he needed was focus.

He closed his eyes and exhaled.

_One_

The metal checklist in his head was being marked off, one thing at a time. All his gear was functioning and in order. He inhaled.

_Two_

He had to beat this course in under seven minutes. That was his goal. If he could do that - an image of the three people watching him being surprised surfaced in his imagination. _'See that Mikasa!?' _is what he would say. He exhaled.

_Three_

His eyes snapped open and he leapt off the branch, quickly firing off both hooks and gaining speed. The sound of metal scraping metal resounded throughout the forest when he unsheathed both swords as he made his rounds through the course, forming his plan off attack now that he had seen the dummies in his area. He lined up his shot, aiming for the closest dummy with a black ring directly behind. He heard the sound of blades severing flesh and felt the grip on his swords strain under the pressure; a clean cut. He pressed on while wielding fast momentum and unhooked just in time to curl up to pass through the hoop in front of him. Just as he passed it, his hand reached out and brushed against a thin, red fabric before grasping it firmly and taking it with him. Just before reaching the ground, he rocketed upwards, soaring toward the next victim. _'One down, a shit ton more to go.'_

After about five minutes, Eren began to feel the massive toll that the extreme maneuvers caused on his body. He turned mid-air and shot off in the opposite direction of where he had been going seconds ago to eliminate a titan, wincing at the groaning of his muscles. Between high speed turns and detaching to pass through the rings, he was barely keeping up. The 3DMG had felt natural to him after years of training and he was extremely well-versed now, but after Mikasa's performance, he felt like a novice just barely learning to take off. His body and mind just weren't sharp enough. He hadn't been graced with natural abilities like she had been, or Levi's level of talent; but he refused to give up, he'd improve. Through sheer will, he pushed his body to go faster. This whole time, he had been taking the time to fire a line at a tree that would line him up straight with the nape of a titan, but now he'd try something different, something he had only seen done by the most skilled. Eliminating multiple targets in an arc.

He raced off through the last area, only a dozen more dummies and rings to go. He memorized the positions of his targets as he rounded a tree, trying his best to visualize how he would take them out. The three dummies were relatively close to each other; all he needed to do was fly from titan to titan without skipping a beat. He'd take them all out in a single swoop.

Eren shot booth hooks into the log of a tree that was in the center of all the targets and swung wide, flying horizontally with his body parallel to the ground. He propelled himself with the pressurized gas to keep himself in the arc and cut one of the napes. The next titan was next to him and he had to raise his arms to reach the flesh. The pull of his swords confirmed the cut, but now came the tricky part. The titan he had just eliminated stood in between him and the tree that his hooks were attached to. The next titan was farther away, his ropes wouldn't reach and the angle of the dummy was completely different than the last two. The ropes had to collide with the titan dummy and change his trajectory. Then, he had to detach his hooks, use his momentum to close the gap and make the final strike completely untethered. It would be his own raw strength slicing the dummy.

Time slowed when the ropes bent when they touched the dummy. Eren felt an upwards pull, the change in his angle raising his velocity and nearly shifting his fingers off the triggers in the sword hilts. As soon as the final titan came into view, he pressed down, releasing the hooks from the tree. Unhindered, he shot forwards like a rocket, feet-first. Eren twisted his body to face the nape and a second later, he was directly in front of it, flying horizontally at death-defying speeds. His blades pierced right through, vicious and sharp, like the yell of effort that roared from his throat.

He did it.

A fresh wave of adrenaline coursed through his veins when looked back the three necks, all cut cleanly and in one go. He couldn't contain his laughter. With renewed vigor, he flew through a ring and tore the ribbon off. He had only seen Levi and the members of his squad pull off that move and he had done it. _'I did it!'_

He could do all those things too. He was just never given the chance because his performance as a human was lackluster in comparison to his performance as a titan, but not anymore. Pride clouded his thoughts and he danced from titan to ring and from ring to titan. He made his turns sharper and deadlier by releasing the sealed wind in his tanks. Now that he had done it, he couldn't stop, he had to keep going, had to reach their levels. He had just proven he had the potential, after all.

Mikasa was growing worried. Eren was using too much gas and going too fast. If he bumped into a tree, the wounds wouldn't just be cuts and breathless lungs; they'd be broken bones and deep gashes. She had half the mind to stop him until she caught a glimpse of his eyes through the trees and leaves. They were furious, they were intense and violent. His slices had so much strength behind them, the wood dummies were being sliced through along with the flesh. She realized then that this wasn't just about looking good in front of the Commander or the Captain. His eyes swept over the area he knew she was in – he was trying to prove himself to her.

If she could do this, he had to do this too. He extended his arms outwards and tilted his blades slightly. Twenty feet away from the last titan, he reeled in only one of the steel cords at his hip and started twisting his body. When he had enough momentum, he used the gas tanks, and that's when he felt it, he felt his body started to spin the same way Captain Levi spun. All too quickly though, he realized he couldn't focus on where he was going and now, he was spinning too fast. The centrifugal force was too much for him, he vision was fading and in the blind tornado he was, he couldn't see where he was going. Horror braced him and fear leaked panic all over him. At break-neck speed, he slammed into a tree, bounced off and crashed into a wooden titan, sending both of them falling towards the earth.

**End Flashback**

"What the hell..?" Levi started jogging into the forest with Erwin trailing behind him. Mikasa was already trying to get the unconscious boy out of his fastenings by the time they got there. Levi would have laughed at the teen's attempt to mimic his technique if it wasn't for all the gore and the ivory ripping through skin. _'Holy shit.'_

Blood was everywhere - pooling around fallen leaves and staining the girl's hands henna. The fact that the kid could heal supernaturally didn't impede their worry. "Levi."

Levin already knew what Erwin wanted him to do. Without so much as a second thought, the humanity's strongest raced to the barracks.

It took them a couple of minutes to finally get Eren's body out of the bush he had landed in and when they had, a group of medics followed by Levi and Hanji were there with a stretcher. "Why couldn't you just tell me what he did this time Levi-" Hange froze when she saw the teen.

A heavy steam had surrounded his entire body – and if there was that much steam… "There, you know what happened now, four eyes. Check if there's anything left of the 3DMG." Levi was bending down to lift the front end of the stretcher while Mikasa grabbed the other. Erwin lifted Eren and set him down and signaled for the two Ackerman's to lift him.

With a glance backwards, Levi met eyes with the Commander who was wiping his hands clean of blood. '_So much for him not breaking any bones.'_

Waking up in a medical ward wasn't a new thing to Eren. In fact, he could say he was starting to get tired of it. His vision was always groggy, his head throbbed and his right arm was always heavier than his left, but that was because _someone's_ head was always resting on it and he didn't need to glance down to see who it was. Her silky, liquid hair was covering her face and cascading over his hand. This is the one thing he supposed he wouldn't get tired of. He'd be doing the same thing should their roles be reversed.

He curled his toes experimentally and then checked to see that every part of his body was – well, _there._ He felt nothing out of the ordinary, save for some slight pain. His swept around the room to see if anyone else was in sight, but it was only him and Mikasa. Through the parted blinds of the window, the bright moonlight shone through, giving him an idea of how long he had been out. He recalled being placed on the bed but that was it. He strained his memory, trying his hardest to remember what had happened. Time passed as he closed his eyes, and as soon as everything came rushing back to him, he flinched. His mood sank lower than it had been and rotted to foulness, the flashes and bits of information only adding more and more to his shame. _'I didn't even pass the course.'_

Mikasa stirred and she lifted her gaze, expecting to find Eren still unconscious; she was surprised to find him awake, with a bitter expression on his face. She rose slowly to not startle him and gave him a couple of seconds. When he didn't acknowledge her presence, she spoke up, her voice soft. "You're awake."

"Yeah."

"How do you feel?" he still wasn't looking at her.

"I'm fine."

He was replying with that slack tone of voice and Mikasa cursed Captain Levi for making her do the course with Eren there. They both knew exactly what would happen, but Levi still issued the command. Now, she had to deal with Eren's anger and a voice inside told her she was the cause of it. She hated this part, hated having to be close to him when she thought he didn't want her around. "Eren, look at me. Ere- _Eren_!"

His eyes shot up and fixed themselves on her; they held a look of annoyance. Now, she had no idea what to say. She had spent the last couple of hours studying his face, thinking of the right words, of just how she could diffuse this bomb but when he faced her with _those_ eyes and _that _expression, her train of thought derailed completely. She was drawing a blank.

He was angry because he hadn't been strong enough; not now, to finish the course, and not in the past, to protect Levi's squad. The last thing he needed was for her to show him just how better _she_ was than _him_. To make him think that if she had been there to pick up his slack, Olou would be here to bite his tongue on horseback and Petra would still help him clean when the Captain was in a sour mood.

She couldn't meet her eyes with his anymore, she couldn't. She said the first and only thing that came to mind, hoping he'd understand. "I'm sorry."

The silence that followed was a nervous one. She wouldn't risk a glance at his face, not right now. He yanked his hand out of hers.

"What are you sorry for? That I'm so weak?"

She swallowed loudly, but she doubted he had heard. "Eren, that's not what I meant-"

"Or are you sorry that you didn't catch up to me to tell me to take it easy, to take a break so that this wouldn't happen? That is what you were going to do, wasn't it? You were going to tell me to stop being so reckless right?"

She stayed quiet.

His voice rose in volume the more he spoke. "You want to know how I know that. Because that's what you've been doing ever since we joined the military. But I get it Mikasa, I know that you're stronger than me, I know that I'm always going to drag you down and I know you're always going to end up having to save me. You've made your point, I understand just how I'm not you!"

He was yelling now.

"And I'm tired of always being reminded of that. Not all of us are fucking geniuses, with perfect abilities like you. Every time you come around, all you ever do is remind me of that. For the past five years, that's all you've done; remind me of my mistakes."

She swore she felt something inside her break. Each moment they had shared during training flashed through her mind in an instant. Did he really feel that way about her?

Just like that, she felt her stomach plummet and her heart pound horridly. His eyes were fixed on her so angrily that she knew he was going to see the tears that were burning and threatening to spill out. Her throat felt so dry and she prayed that her voice would sound normal when she replied. "Fine, I'll stop bothering you then."

Just as Eren was about to reply, someone knocked on the open door of the ward.

"There's that warm, charming personality you're so known for, Yaeger."

She knew that lax, uninterested voice and she knew that if she stayed there any longer, she would do something she would later come to regret. Without a word, she got up from her chair and left. She'd be dammed if she let Levi see her like this. She brushed past him, out the door and kept walking. She kept walking until her vision was too blurry. Tears slid down her face and she could taste their saltiness, but she ignored it; she wasn't going to admit she was crying.

Levi took slow steps, taking note of how Eren's eyes had followed Mikasa out the door and when once she was gone, he crossed his arms and glared at the medical strap on his left wrist. Once in front of the bed, he checked the clipboard attached to it, to see that the kid was okay; he _had _lost a lot of blood, after all. "If you feel well enough to walk and dress yourself, Commander Erwin would like to see you in his office."

Eren merely nodded to show he had heard him, but said nothing. Satisfied that he had been heard, Levi turned to leave but just before crossing the threshold of the room, he stopped. Who knows what possessed him to say what he said, or why he said it, but he did. "You should take it easy on her, Yaeger. You have her and she has you," a pair of honey colored eyes flashed in his mind when he shut his own, "You still have each other and that's more than what most people here can say they have."

He hadn't turned around, yet as soon as he did, he saw Eren was unmoved. He was still being angry and still being stubborn and it made Levi's anger flare. "Still, I have no idea why she's so devoted to such an asshole like you."

He walked out of the room and out into the hallway. Had it been anyone else, had it not been Humanity's strongest, nothing would seem out of place. But this _was_ that soldier, who was renowned for his skills and sharp senses and that's he noticed what most wouldn't. All the way down the hallway, sprinkled sparingly here and there, were droplets of water – tears. Tears that left a trail as far as the hallway lasted and turned into another corner.

He could see the small reflection of light coming from the tiny puddle next to hit foot, the sight made his gut wrench. He _**really**_ hated dealing with brats.

Viridian orbs widened after hearing the words that had left the man's mouth. _One on one training – with the Commander of the Survey Corps?_

It didn't seem possible. Why would he want to train him? Never mind that – just _how_ would he train him? Eren hardly ever saw the Commander and those few times he did were because some important event required his attention. So then how was he going to train him-?

"I'll take your stunned silence as a good sign."

Eren shook his head to vanish the thoughts of doubt. He straightened his back against the chair he was sitting in and gripped the armrests. _Was this a joke?_

"Do you really mean it, sir?"

Without hesitation, the Commander replied. "Of course."

"I'll take care of everything, and teach you the skills you need," the Commander then added more, just to see the boy's reaction, "to be on par with even our strongest soldiers." The effect was immediate and out of all the emotions he could see in those green eyes, eagerness shined through the most.

"I will warn you though. This training hardly qualifies as training; Mike said _torture_ was more a more appropriate name. I called you here to ask whether or not you were up for it, because this won't be easy, and I can't have you backing out halfway through. Do you think you can do this?"

_He wants to know whether or not I handle it?_

All at once, everything he had gone through in the past month flashed through his mind; all of it in a matter of seconds.

_All the times that he failed._

He would never be able to tease him about his side burns, or how his speech inspired him to join the Survey Corps. He'd never see her hovering above Mikasa, asking how her hair got the way that it was either. Thomas and Mina were gone.

_All the times that he wasn't strong or fast enough._

He remembered the tall and dark green trees of that forest and the rise and fall of his body as he bounced on the saddle of his horse along with five others that were in a formation around him – protecting him. They should have already been long gone, doing anything they could to stay alive and protect themselves. The horse hooves still trampled along side him and to this day, that shook him more than the loud and lumbering footsteps of the Female Titan chasing after them ever would.

The hooks shot off from their gear and they flew with him, but in an instant, they weren't there anymore. In a matter of seconds, everything had gone wrong and what made his eyes sting the most was that the days after, when the two of them were in that room, the Captain Levi was so talkative. He was talking so much as if that would equal the loud antics _they_ had had in that room. It was like he hoped he could cover up the silence of their absence with his own voice.

He had trusted their skills more than his own.

_But not anymore._

Erwin didn't think he'd hear that three letter word uttered with more absolution than he did then. "_**Yes.**_"

_**So there you have it, the first chapter. If you have any suggestions, or you spot mistakes I could fix, pleaseplease, don't hesitate to mention them. I have really high hopes for this, and my readers are my greatest source of criticism that can help me perfect this into what I want it to be. Thanks for reading 3**_


End file.
